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Red Dead Redemption 2 Wasn't The Top-Selling Game In October

What game do you think sold the most units in October? Hold your horses, partner. If you were about to say Red Dead Redemption 2, then you'd be red dead wrong. As it turns out, Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII actually takes the crown for October sales, though there are a few factors that help explain why that is.

Based on all of the recent news, you wouldn't be faulted for assuming that Rockstar's Western epic, Red Dead Redemption II, had earned the top spot on the NPD charts for its launch month. After all, it had the single biggest launch weekend in the history of media (take THAT, Avengers!), and just a few days later managed to surpass the originalRed Dead Redemption in lifetime sales. That's super impressive but, as Gameinformer is reporting, the game didn't earn the top NPD spot.

Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII also had a massive showing, even if Activision investors were somehow still unimpressed. It set a day one sales record at launch and managed to shoot past $830 million over the course of five days. Microtransactions were also recently introduced to the game so, combined with continued sales and a holiday boost, it'll likely keep pulling down some big figures in the months ahead.

As for how Call of Duty outsold Red Dead Redemption in October, we have to first keep in mind that the former launched on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, while the latter has only launched on game consoles so far. In other words, Call of Duty had an extra platform's worth of sales backing it. More importantly, Call of Duty launched on Oct. 12, two weeks before Red Dead arrived on Oct. 26. It's also worth noting that, launching on Oct. 26, Red Dead only had about a week's worth of sales included in the October NPD stats.

None of this takes away from Call of Duty, though. The game is obviously doing very well for itself. But if you were confused as to how it topped Red Dead in sales last month, well, now you have some extra factors to consider.

In case you're curious, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey was the third highest-selling game of October according to NPD, followed by NBA 2K19 and Super Super Mario Party, which only launched for the Switch. The remainder of the top 10 spots were filled out respectively by Soulcalibur VI, FIFA 19, Marvel's Spider-Man, Madden NFL 19 and WWE 2K19.

Unexpected standouts on the list include Mario Kart 8 at 15, which is nearly two years old at this point, as well as Super Mario Odyssey at 17 and Breath of the Wild at 19. Again, those are Switch exclusives, which should let you know just how well Nintendo's latest console is doing.

And in case you're wondering about Red Dead Redemption II's potential staying power, Rockster's last game, Grand Theft Auto V, has been on the NPD chart since it launched about five years ago and, in October, it was still there to hold down the 16th position.